Tamworth 5

Men complete the double!!!
There was something of a carnival atmosphere on Sunday in the final race in this year’s Burton & District Summer Road Running League, the Tamworth 5. The excellent running conditions & the superb facilities at Tamworth AC all contributed to a great race in which the main challenge was whether the Club’s men could match the efforts of the Club’s successful women & complete, for the first time, a Club team double. This was never really in much doubt as Dominic Sharman, getting back to something like his best, led the way home with 4^th place out of 127 finishers in a time of 29.52. One place further back in 5^th was Chris Pearson, who kept alive a really competitive Club Championship, with 29.52. There wasn’t long to wait for Andy Hawtin to stop the clock at 30.21 for 9^th place with James Cassidy running well for 31.04 & 11^th place overall. Making a very welcome first competitive appearance of the season was Gerry O’Brien, who ran excellently for his 31.11 & 14^th place. Completing the scoring team was Chappers Junior , who on this occasion just got the better of his elder brother Paul in times of 31.31 & 31.54 & finishing positions of 18^th & 20^th respectively. Continuing her excellent season was Christina Cooper whose PB for the distance of 32.23 was good enough for 24^th place overall & 2^nd place in the women’s race.
There then followed a really close battle between Andy Orme & Colin Mee as finishing times of 32.46 & 32.51 in Andy’s favour confirm. Chris Gunstone continued on the road back to full fitness with a very solid 33.46 before Nigel Atkins, in what was probably the performance of the day, stopped the clock in a PB of 34.44. There were then some really tight inter Club battles with the two Chris’s, Crosby & Hughes only separated by 5 seconds in 35.21 & 35.26 with a similar margin separating the evergreen Steve Fowler & Mark Coombes in 36.04 & 36.09 respectively. There was then a further rush of yellow vests as Katie Cotton, Daniel Towns, Tracey Glover & Ashley Parkes filled finishing places 49 to 52 in respective times of 36.16, 36.32, 36.36 & 36.46. The Nottingham Marathon bound Gary Price was next in 37.15 with Adrian Middleton, not far behind, in a well run 37.31. Another who has had an excellent season, Sam Skidmore, was next in 39.00 before Malcolm Moore & Paul Glover were both credited with exactly the same finishing time of 39.33, a PB for Glover, in the early days of his road running career. Others who took advantage of the excellent running conditions to record PBs of 40.12 & 40.32 respectively were Lisa Wright and the hard running Tim Argent, with the improving Laura Storer running them close with her 41.00. Another racing herself back to full fitness after a long injury layoff is Rebecca Atkins & she should be well pleased with her 42.56. Chris Morton, Richard Ward & the battling Inge Moore completed an excellent day for the Club with very respectable finishing times of 44.29, 44.57 & 45.22.
Just to confirm what a great team effort this BDSL campaign has been, Gerry on Sunday was the 14th man to figure in the scoring team acoss the whole series with Andy H, the most regular scorer. For the women, 7 have figured among the scoring team across the series with Christina & Tracey the most consistent scorers. A terrific effort.